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By James BallThe Washington Post • Tuesday October 2, 2012 6:23 AM

Video footage has emerged showing U.S. freelance journalist Austin Tice being held by a group of
masked men toting assault rifles in the first direct evidence of his condition since his
disappearance in mid-August.

The 47-second video clip was posted onto YouTube on Sept. 26 and came to light yesterday after
it appeared on a Facebook page associated with supporters of the government of Syrian President
Bashar Assad. It is the first to show Tice since he disappeared while reporting on Syria’s civil
war.

The video opens with shaky footage of a convoy of three vehicles moving through scrubby mountain
terrain, before cutting to a small knot of armed men, faces obscured, leading Tice up a mountain
path while calling “
Allahu al-Akbar,” or “God is great.”

A blindfolded Tice is then pushed to his knees and filmed speaking a partially indecipherable
prayer in Arabic. Tice, visibly distressed, cries out “Oh Jesus, oh Jesus” in English before
reverting to Arabic, seconds before the footage is cut.

The emergence of the video comes amid other reports suggesting Tice has been in the custody of
the Syrian government. Experts said yesterday that there are clear discrepancies between the
footage of Tice and other videos released by Islamist extremist groups operating in Syria.

“My gut instinct is that regime security guys dressed up like a bunch of wahoos and dragged him
around and released the video to scare the U.S. and others about the danger of al-Qaida extremists
in Syria. It would fit their narrative perfectly,” said Joseph Holliday, who researches Syrian
rebel groups at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.